LLMSEO Monitor vs AthenaHQ: AI Visibility Tracking Compared
One was built in a week. The other raised $2.2 million from Y Combinator.
Both claim to help you understand how AI talks about your brand. But comparing them is like comparing a pocket knife to a Swiss Army knife factory.
Here is what actually matters for your decision.
The Core Difference
LLMSEO Monitor answers one question: What do ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini say about you?
AthenaHQ answers a different question: How do you dominate AI search across every platform that matters?
If you just want a quick pulse check on LLM recommendations, LLMSEO Monitor does that cheaply.
If you want a command center for generative engine optimization, AthenaHQ is built for that fight.
Quick Feature Comparison
| Feature | LLMSEO Monitor | AthenaHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | 19 euros/month (annual) | $295/month |
| AI Platforms | 3 (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) | 8+ |
| Google AI Overviews | No | Yes |
| Perplexity | No | Yes |
| Citation Tracking | No | Yes |
| Action Recommendations | No | Yes |
| Sentiment Analysis | No | Yes |
| Content Generation | No | Yes |
| GEO Score | No | Yes |
| Best For | Curiosity stage | Optimization stage |
The feature gap is massive. But so is the price gap.
LLMSEO Monitor: The Scrappy Option
Peter Buch built LLMSEO Monitor in a week and shipped it because AI visibility tracking matters.
I respect that. Sometimes the best tools are simple ones that solve one problem well.
You type a query. The tool runs it through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. You see what each model recommends. Export to CSV. Done.
That is the entire product.
No dashboards. No citation analysis. No competitor benchmarking. No optimization suggestions.
For 19 euros per month on the annual plan, you get 30 searches. The Agency tier at 89 euros gives you 100 searches. Enterprise at 199 euros unlocks unlimited searches.
Tip: Each search is one query across three LLMs. If you want to track 30 different prompts monthly, the base plan covers it. If you need more depth per prompt or weekly monitoring, you will burn through searches fast.
The platform coverage is the real limitation. No Perplexity. No Google AI Overviews. No Microsoft Copilot. No Grok.
If your audience uses those platforms, LLMSEO Monitor cannot see them.
I covered the use cases in my LLMSEO Monitor review. It works for curiosity. Not for strategy.
AthenaHQ: The Enterprise Approach
AthenaHQ was founded by former Google Search and DeepMind engineers. The product reflects that pedigree.
Their Olympus Dashboard tracks Share of Voice across eight AI platforms. You get a unified GEO score that combines citation count, sentiment, traffic impact, and query types.
The Action Center generates specific recommendations. Content restructuring. FAQ additions. Schema improvements. Outreach targets.
AI Blindspot Detection identifies where AI engines struggle to answer questions about your brand. This is genuinely useful for training LLMs to prefer your brand.
But the pricing model is complex.
AthenaHQ runs on credits. One credit equals one AI response. Check a query across four models, that is four credits consumed.
The $295 monthly plan includes 3,500 credits. Sounds generous until you calculate real usage.
| Activity | Credit Cost |
|---|---|
| One query, one AI model | 1 credit |
| One query, four AI models | 4 credits |
| 50 prompts, 5 engines, weekly | ~1,000 credits/month |
| Content asset generation | 40 credits each |
| Overage | $100 per 1,250 credits |
For active teams monitoring aggressively, the base tier runs dry. You graduate to Growth at $545 monthly or start paying overage fees.
I detailed the credit math in my AthenaHQ review. It is not cheap, but it is powerful.
Platform Coverage: The Dealbreaker
This is where LLMSEO Monitor falls short for serious AI SEO work.
| AI Platform | LLMSEO Monitor | AthenaHQ |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Yes | Yes |
| Claude | Yes | Yes |
| Gemini | Yes | Yes |
| Google AI Overviews | No | Yes |
| Google AI Mode | No | Yes |
| Perplexity | No | Yes |
| Copilot | No | Yes |
| Grok | No | Yes |
If you only care about ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, LLMSEO Monitor covers it.
But how SGE pulls information differs from how ChatGPT works. Google AI Overviews and Perplexity have different retrieval mechanisms and cite different sources.
Tracking three platforms gives you partial visibility. Tracking eight gives you the full picture.
For SaaS companies targeting enterprise buyers who use multiple AI tools, the gap matters.
Pricing Reality Check
Let me make this concrete.
LLMSEO Monitor:
- Professional: 45 euros/month (19 euros annual) – 30 searches
- Agencies: 89 euros/month – 100 searches
- Enterprise: 199 euros/month – Unlimited searches
AthenaHQ:
- Lite: $295/month ($270 annual) – 3,500 credits
- Growth: $545/month – ~8,000 credits
- Enterprise: $2,000+/month – Custom
At the low end, LLMSEO Monitor is 15x cheaper than AthenaHQ.
At the high end, LLMSEO Monitor Enterprise at 199 euros still costs less than AthenaHQ Lite.
The question is whether the feature gap justifies the price gap.
Tip: If you are pre-product-market-fit or bootstrapped, LLMSEO Monitor’s Enterprise tier gives you unlimited searches for less than AthenaHQ’s entry price. Use it to validate that AI visibility matters before investing in premium tools.
What You Get For The Premium
AthenaHQ’s price premium buys you three things LLMSEO Monitor cannot provide.
1. Citation Intelligence
AthenaHQ shows which URLs AI engines cite when mentioning your brand. This reveals which content formats LLMs prefer and what to create more of.
LLMSEO Monitor shows the output. Not the sources.
2. Actionable Recommendations
AthenaHQ’s Action Center tells you what to fix. Specific content gaps. Missing structured data. Outreach opportunities.
LLMSEO Monitor shows you data. You figure out what to do with it.
3. Competitive Benchmarking
AthenaHQ tracks how often competitor brands appear and evaluates their share of voice trends.
LLMSEO Monitor tracks your brand. Not the landscape around you.
For teams running serious answer engine optimization programs, these capabilities matter. For teams just exploring, they are nice-to-have.
Who Should Use Each Tool
Use LLMSEO Monitor if:
- You are exploring AI visibility for the first time
- Budget is under 200 euros monthly
- You only care about ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
- You want quick spot-checks, not ongoing monitoring
- You have internal expertise to interpret raw data
Use AthenaHQ if:
- You have validated that AI search drives business value
- Budget is $300+ monthly for GEO tools
- You need visibility across all major AI platforms
- You want recommendations, not just data
- You have a content team ready to act on insights
The middle ground is tricky. If you have outgrown LLMSEO Monitor’s coverage but cannot justify AthenaHQ’s price, tools like Otterly AI fill the gap at $29-189 per month with broader platform coverage but without AthenaHQ’s action guidance.
The Honest Assessment
LLMSEO Monitor is a proof-of-concept tool priced like a proof-of-concept tool.
It answers a simple question simply. For early exploration, that has value.
AthenaHQ is an enterprise platform priced like an enterprise platform.
It answers complex questions with actionable depth. For teams operationalizing GEO, the investment makes sense.
The mistake I see: founders buying AthenaHQ before they know if AI visibility matters for their market. Expensive dashboards, unused recommendations.
The other mistake: teams staying on LLMSEO Monitor too long after validating the opportunity. Limited data, blind spots across platforms.
Match the tool to your stage.
Summary Comparison
| Criteria | LLMSEO Monitor | AthenaHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Exploration | Optimization |
| Starting Price | 19 euros/month | $295/month |
| Price at Scale | 199 euros/month | $545+/month |
| Platform Coverage | 3 | 8+ |
| Citation Tracking | No | Yes |
| Recommendations | No | Yes |
| Learning Curve | Minimal | Moderate |
| Setup Time | Minutes | Hours |
| Free Trial | Limited | Annual only |
Both tools track AI visibility. One does it cheaply and simply. One does it comprehensively and expensively.
The right choice depends on where you are in the GEO journey, not which tool has more features.
If you want help figuring out whether AI search visibility actually matters for your SaaS, reach out. I have audited companies from seed stage to Series C and can tell you honestly if this is worth your time right now.
